Related topics

Facebookers condemned to Hell Lite

Seventh circle of social networking

Common Topics

As Facebook tests a new slimmed-down version of its site with users in the US and India, many are complaining they have no way of getting back to the original beefy version.

Mark Zuckerberg and company rolled out their Facebook Lite beta in mid-September, testing a version of the social-networking time-sink designed specifically for slow net connections. Some have praised the new site's simpler look and feel - among other things, it does away with old-school Facebook applications - but other testers are less than enamored with the beta, and countless users say they're unable to remove themselves.

"plz ya do somthn abt ds shit facebook lite!!!" writes one user. "its been two dayz dat m nt able to use my account!!! ask dese facebook ppl to help us out!!! its becoz of some of their employyes we r stuck into ds situation….. plzzzz help us out!!!"

Nishanth Bhushan, a user based in India, previewed the Lite site not long after it was released here. Then, around 25 September, he found that the Lite page opened every time he visited facebook.com, and he had no way of reverting to Facebook, um, Classic. And according to posts here and here, many are complaining of similar problems.

Some say they can revert from the beta simply by retyping the facebook.com url. Others say they're only able to revert by flushing their cache and cookies. And still others, like Bhushan, are trapped in Lite hell. "Facebook lite officially sucks," writes one user. "It is the worst thing to have happened on the internet ever."

Though Bhushan and others have attempted to contact Facebook, the company has yet to respond. Nor has it responded to inquiries from The Reg.

Bhushan tells The Reg he's even gone so far as to flush his DNS cache, and has tried accessing his account from a new machine with a new browser. But more than a week later, his Facebook is still Lite.